They called it inextinguishable, or asbestos. - Asbestos, the remarkable mineral. - By the mid 20th century, asbestos was everywhere, inside brake pads, toasters, ironing boards, hair dryers, surgical dressings, and blankets.
during the asbestos boom, were now turning up with multiple cancers in huge numbers. - Asbestos exposure is linked to all sorts of different cancers. The lung tissue has lymphatic vessels in it, but you have 'em throughout your whole body.
Between 1940 and 1980, the asbestos industry, led by Johns-Manville, exposed roughly 21 million Americans to these fibers. Asbestos related deaths amounted to at least 8 to 10,000 people every year, with many more suffering lifelong disease. In 1989, the EPA issued a rule to phase out almost all asbestos use in the United States.
And you might say asbestos, there are asbestos lawsuits. Asbestos is illegal. Well, asbestos is not illegal. There are lawsuits. And there's a rare form of cancer called mesothelioma that's only associated with asbestos exposure.
And I realized that maybe hydrofracking was more relatable to asbestos, the greatest thing since asbestos than white bread. If you remember when we had our beginning love affair with asbestos, it was the greatest thing that could ever have happened to us. It was gonna change our world. It was gonna make jobs for us. And it was just this incredible thing. And in time we've come to find out that it isn't so incredible. So I began basically, I went
and digest bacteria, dust or debris. But asbestos fibers are too long and stiff to swallow. It's kind of like trying to eat a toothpick sideways.
- Now Selikoff, the legendary doctor who organized this conference in the 1970s found that intravenous drugs were being contaminated by asbestos filtration. People aren't just eating it and breathing it, they're mainlining it. - By the 1970s, no one could deny it any longer, miners, factory workers, shipyard insulators, people who'd been exposed decades earlier
The lung tissue has lymphatic vessels in it, but you have 'em throughout your whole body. The asbestos fibers sometimes on their own can migrate into the lymphatic vessels. Sometimes the white blood cells will take it into the lymphatic system.
A Johns-Manville medical official later testified that up until 1971, the company had a policy of not telling their workers if their physicals showed signs of asbestosis or asbestos-related lung cancers. And in sworn testimony, a witness recalled a meeting they had in the early 1940s with the president of Johns-Manville, asking why they weren't warning workers about asbestos.
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. that asbestos was found in decorative sand, that difference matters, I would like to know whether the concern is over a mere suspicion or actual asbestos contamination,
Sorry if I'm embarrassing you, Dan. So asbestos, which kills thousands of people every year, the EPA tried and tried and cannot regulate.
One brand of toothpaste even used it for extra polish, the fake snow in department store windows and in movies like "The Wizard of Oz," all of that's asbestos too. - Unusual weather we're having, eh?
Major mining operations spread across Canada, Russia, and South Africa with global production peaking at approximately 4.8 million tons per year in 1977. But the reason asbestos ended up in so many different products is because it's actually a group of different minerals, that white, fluffy stuff we tried to burn earlier, it's called chrysotile, and it belongs to a mineral family known as the serpentines.
it's called chrysotile, and it belongs to a mineral family known as the serpentines. But other types of asbestos looked completely different. For instance, there is also brown asbestos known as amosite.
In 1924, Dr. Cook published the first medical description of this condition, which became known as asbestosis. When these asbestos fibers lodge into the lungs, the body treats them like invaders, specialized cells called macrophages move in, cells whose job it is to engulf and digest bacteria, dust or debris.
The macrophages keep trying and failing, and in the process, they release inflammatory chemicals that damage the surrounding lung tissue. So workers breathing in asbestos dust day after day, accumulated more and more damage. When doctors sent by the British government examined hundreds of asbestos workers, they found that more than 25% already showed signs of lung disease.
as a public health crisis. But the asbestos industry fought back trying to discredit Selikoff. Industry-funded research groups came out with papers minimizing the risk of exposure and framing Selikoff's findings as overblown.
- By the 1970s, no one could deny it any longer, miners, factory workers, shipyard insulators, people who'd been exposed decades earlier during the asbestos boom, were now turning up with multiple cancers in huge numbers. - Asbestos exposure is linked to all sorts of different cancers.
- US courts were flooded with lawsuits against companies like Johns-Manville. The harm asbestos caused was well documented. The information was out there.
- They should know what's reasonably available in the public domain about the dangers of asbestos. If they can read asbestos patents, they can read asbestos pathology papers. - But the companies denied it.
And the lawsuits surged, each case brought new discovery and each round of discovery exposed a wider, more coordinated coverup. Ever since the word asbestosis started showing up in medical journals in the 1920s, Johns-Manville went out to secure the market around itself. First, they acquired the biggest rock wall company, then they acquired a firm holding the key patents to calcium silicate insulation, insulation that could be made without asbestos.
So each in turn became a member of this conspiracy of silence. That is how the asbestos industry guaranteed its survival, by ensuring no one could speak out against it. - We suggest you consider asbestos for the walls of your home.
That is how the asbestos industry guaranteed its survival, by ensuring no one could speak out against it. - We suggest you consider asbestos for the walls of your home. - Their business decisions and the people who make them are businessmen.
- Yeah. - There's asbestos in there. There's asbestos in the unicorn. - It's in all of that? - Yes.
- It's in all of that? - Yes. All of these have asbestos in them. I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere.
All of these have asbestos in them. I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. Everywhere, okay. The eyeshadows, the blush, they all had asbestos fibers.
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. That's how asbestos ends up in products like the ones we saw at Sean's lab.
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. than 1% of asbestos would not be regulated.
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. I knew they had asbestos, and so I started calling.
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. They found asbestos levels far above the EPA's own safety thresholds in most of their samples.
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. What actually counts as asbestos?
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. - Is there asbestos in the air?
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. Is there asbestos in the soil?
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. Is there asbestos in the water?
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. Is there asbestos in the body?
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. how much asbestos I would be inhaling through the dust that I kick up.
I've definitely made the mistake of touching it and burning my finger. And I have asbestos hands. I've made the mistake of, like, pulling a cast iron skillet out of the oven bare-handed.
And the processed red meats, the World Health Organization has classified processed red meats as a class I carcinogen, along with asbestos and tobacco. And, of course, this has been heavily attacked by the meat industry, but they don't have any power over the World Health Organization.
And even a chemical like asbestos that kills 10,000 people a year cannot be controlled by the EPA. And you might say asbestos, there are asbestos lawsuits. Asbestos is illegal. Well, asbestos is not illegal.
So if you're an asbestos worker or the spouse of an asbestos worker and you get mesothelioma, you can sue the asbestos industry that that's the reason for your disease. And you'll probably win the case, but you also will die.
Across the Atlantic, things weren't much better. There was no binding federal asbestos rules in the States, only a recommendation. The US Public Health Service suggested a temporary exposure limit of 5 million asbestos particles for a single cubic foot of air,
Before long, he'd seen multiple workers with either severe lung scarring or more concerningly, an extremely rare cancer called mesothelioma. - A mesothelioma is strongly associated with asbestos exposure and is cancer of those cells lining the inside of the chest cavity.
the companies agreed that nothing should be published that contained any objectionable material. Objectionable meaning any sort of indication that asbestos causes cancer. So when Saranac Laboratories finished their research, the companies took the report, edited it, and just buried the evidence.
Chrysotile and five amphiboles, because these were the only ones being mined, sold, and used in factories. But those six became the official asbestos minerals and anything else, no matter how fiber-like or potentially dangerous, well, that doesn't count. - The FDA for the first time in 50 years, considering testing for asbestos in cosmetics and talc powder.
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. But this spray was actually marketed as asbestos-free.
I started seeing asbestos fibers everywhere. - Nobody would've expected to find asbestos here.
You know, I'm the head of the CIA, let me tell you what was really going on." Not likely. But knows. He knows who begin to study how much asbestos is an allowable amount." Now, they never considered zero, which is what I'd want
62,000 chemicals were grandfathered, like you're OK. And even a chemical like asbestos that kills 10,000 people a year cannot be controlled by the EPA. And you might say asbestos, there are asbestos lawsuits.
There are lawsuits. And there's a rare form of cancer called mesothelioma that's only associated with asbestos exposure. So if you're an asbestos worker or the spouse of an asbestos worker and you get mesothelioma, you can sue the asbestos industry that that's the reason for your disease.
And that's not a good way to regulate chemicals. And that's how we regulate asbestos, through lawsuits. By then, it's really late.